Faith and Finance
In part one of Making Money With Your Passion, I stressed the importance of finding what you’re really passionate about before you start any new ventures. That’s because if you’re not working towards a goal with something you’re passionate about, you’ll likely become unmotivated and look for something different.
The best part of working towards something that you’re passionate about is that if you don’t make money with it from the start (and it might take a while), you’ll still be motivated to keep going because it’s what you’re passionate about. Sounds obvious, but it can make all the difference when you feel like you’ve hit a plateau in your efforts. It’s no newsflash that money shouldn’t be your primary motivator – but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t make money [over time] by doing work that you love!
So I Know My Passion…Now What?
Set reasonable expectations
It’s not reasonable to expect that you can quit your day job just because you’re starting a blog or writing a book that you hope to publish this year.
Proverbs 27:23 says – Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds.
Dropping everything to pursue your passion when you don’t have a plan of action is plain foolish. I love how this verse applies to entrepreneurs because it emphasizes the importance of making sure your ducks (or flocks) are in a row before taking on more responsibilities.
Work Hard – Really Hard
I would argue that in every business I’ve started, the beginning phases required the most work. They also returned very little up front. Your investment period may be one month, six months, or a year before you start to see major returns. It really depends on what channels you’re using to share your passion; but in every case it requires hard work.
Expect to work harder than you have ever worked before. If this seems like a shocker, you’re fooling yourself.
Proverbs 10:4 says – Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.
Approaching the hard work with diligent hands means that you pursue each detail with a focused attention. You’re not on autopilot here. You’ll need to work smart AND hard (as opposed to smart not hard). I’d rather work 50+ hours a week doing something that I love than a 40-hour job that isn’t stimulating, wouldn’t you?
Be Open To Unexpected Opportunities
When I started writing online, I figured that money might come in through ads or sponsors one day, but figured that would be way down the road. Until then, I wasn’t sure how I’d make money doing what I loved. Did that keep me from working hard and writing the best that I could? Absolutely not! In fact, within three months of writing to a very small audience on Faith and Finance, I was offered the opportunity to become a staff writer on three major personal finance blogs. (Christian PF, Bible Money Matters and Personal Finance By The Book) I don’t think those unexpected opportunities would have even become available if I hadn’t pursued my passion on Faith and Finance with all I had.
I’ll admit, the idea of joining a team of great writers for these sites seemed intimidating at first, but I wasn’t about to let some small hint of fear overshadow the awesome opportunity in front of me. Taking advantage of these unexpected opportunities really stretched me as a blogger and added an awesome bunch of readers to the blog! (yes you!) Although I’m not making enough money to live on, it feels great to make a little extra money writing for other sites – an opportunity that I wasn’t expecting at all.
Part three of making money with your passion will help you with the tools you need to get started and it’ll encourage you to think about creative ways you can make money by doing what you love.
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